Mat-Su

Matanuska River consumes home, buildings near Sutton, with more in its path

SUTTON -- The surging Matanuska River has consumed a home and seven buildings at just one property near Sutton and threatens a half-dozen others along the Glenn Highway.

The last structure left on Robert Luch's property dropped into the river around 2 p.m. Thursday. A loud pop was the only signal before the red shed collapsed into the surging gray water.

"That's what they do when they go. No warning," said Bill Schmidtkunz, a neighbor helping move items away from a bank losing at least 12 feet a day, and sometimes twice that.

Two more large storage sheds that had dropped into the river earlier Thursday sat about a quarter-mile down the river, perched against a gravel bar.

The river started ravaging its northern banks over the weekend as warm days and rain melted the Matanuska Glacier and sent levels rising on myriad creeks and rivers flowing into the main river from Eureka down.

Melt-triggered erosion and flooding are nothing new on this braided glacial river that's plagued nearby residents for decades with unpredictable summer shifts that generally extend into August or September. But the Matanuska isn't especially high or fast right now; it's running at 11,000 cubic feet per second, which is lower than the median level established over 43 years.

The problem facing property owners near Sutton is that the river's channel is shifting toward them, said Jeff Conaway, a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage.

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The river is just now getting into the peak glacial flow period sparked by warm weather, Conaway said. While fall rains can trigger rising river levels and flooding, the current type of flow can cause more erosion damage.

"It's just sitting there hitting the bank in front of their house day in and day out," he said.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough emergency manager Casey Cook said he's monitoring the situation. The borough is hoping to acquire grant funding to start a buyout program for threatened properties in Sutton and Butte, but that money hasn't come through yet. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining potential fixes for the Sutton stretch of the problem-prone river, but that's also not anywhere near finalized.

In the meantime, there's not much the borough can do, Cook said.

"It's flooding fast and running fast and we're not going to put people in the river to get out coolers that have fallen in the river or even homes," he said. "People just need to be careful when they're walking along the bank."

The man experiencing all the losses so far can't come home to help. The 67-year-old Luch is serving a 60-year prison sentence for murder at the nearby Palmer Correctional Center following a 2013 conviction for shooting his wife to death in their Anchorage home.

Schmidtkunz and his wife live across the road. He owns Matanuska Woodworks, so he's having to split time between jobs booked months ago and laboring at the property, moving possessions out of harm's way whenever possible and clearing toxic materials like herbicides.

"We want to get the toxic stuff out of the river -- the Styrofoam, the plastic, the wire," he said. "This is Palmer's drinking water."

The borough was said to be working on getting a dumpster to help the couple dispose of trash but it hadn't arrived as of Thursday afternoon.

Neighbors say longtime residents Ed and Val Musial just up the road again have river up to their back door -- the Musials have long blamed a failed finger dike for the local erosion problems -- as do Paul and Evelyn Johnson. Both houses were still OK on Thursday, one concerned resident said.

Downriver from the Luch property sits an abandoned-looking home with water lapping at its foundations and another cluster of buildings owned by a part-time resident.

The next property is Colleen Boyle's small, trim home. Gray water pools in the grassy backyard. The river is running through the forest just beyond, where Boyle's parents built a log home in the 1940s.

"In the morning, it's a river," Boyle said, looking at the standing water in the yard early Wednesday afternoon. Big pulses of water from upriver don't arrive at her house until nightfall.

By 3:30 a.m. Thursday, when Boyle got up for work at Bishop's Attic thrift store in Palmer, a river of moving water sliced through her yard.

"There was a little bull moose splashing around, having a ball," she said. "And ducks."

Boyle and her brother, Bob, are watching the bank just upriver with trepidation. If it goes, they fear the full power of the current will point straight at her property.

Boyle said she didn't plan to pack anything up quite yet. Her brother had other plans.

"Colleen can say what she wants but if the water gets much closer, we're gonna move her," he said.

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

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